SAN CLEMENTE -(CA)- High school and college filmmakers got their turn in the spotlight Monday evening as Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente hosted the third annual Film Stories Festival, featuring 10 student-made short films.

Film Stories Festival director Zack Roman, 20, left, of San Clemente stands with Brian Ivie, 20, of San Clemente, president of event sponsor Flashbulb Entertainment, at Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente on Monday evening. The third annual Film Stories Festival featured 10 student-made short films with categories for high school and college.

The festival, organized and sponsored by San Clemente-based production company Flashbulb Entertainment, is meant to help student filmmakers get started in an industry that can be financially challenging, according to Flashbulb founder and president Brian Ivie, 20, a graduate of San Clemente High School.

“Our goal this year is to promote student filmmakers by rewarding creative, lasting stories before aesthetics, where winners receive scholarship prizes to pursue their artistic passions,” Ivie said. “In the end, we hope to help fulfill the dreams of young people who might otherwise be forced to forfeit those dreams for financial reasons.”

Hollywood writer and director Stephen Suscojudged the entries, awarding the $500 high school scholarship award to 2011 Capistrano Valley High School graduate Kevin Clark for his 14-minute film “The Thief and the Liar,” which he wrote, produced and directed. The 2010 film is a 1930s-set avant-garde take on real-life bank robber Willie Sutton.

Clark used social media to fund the $1,000 cost of the project, which took six months of planning and two days to shoot, followed by two weeks of editing. The biggest challenge, Clark said, was maintaining the look and feel of the time, including slang, the set, props and borrowed newsreel footage.

Clark said he would do it differently now, in light of what he learned working on the film and other projects since.

“At first, I just told the actors what I wanted,” Clark said. “Now, I’ll listen and let them relate to the role on their own.”

The Best of Fest prize as well as first place in the college category went to UCLA master’s recipient Erick Oh for his eight-minute animated film “Heart.” His prizes totaled $1,500.

The festival was in conjunction with Casa Romantica’s “Salute to Hollywood” exhibit on the evolution of filmmaking, which includes photos, costumes and other memorabilia through Oct. 23 at 415 Avenida Granada.